


What Now?

by Songspinner



Series: DMC Gen Week [4]
Category: DmC: Devil May Cry
Genre: DMC Gen Week, Drabble, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 05:50:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20092303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Songspinner/pseuds/Songspinner
Summary: A drabble about Kat and Dante talking through some stuff in the aftermath of Vergil leaving; Kat engages in some introspection about Vergil, Dante, and how things have come to this.Part of DMC Gen Week on tumblrDay 4 Prompt: Protection/Smile(I'm falling a little behind, sorry!)





	What Now?

“Did you really mean what you said back there?” Kat picked at her lo mein with her plastic fork, as the TV in the hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant blared with yet more talking heads arguing over how accurate the word “demon” was and what exactly had happened at Silver Sacks Tower. “About the world being under your protection?”

Dante glanced at her and chewed slowly, mouth full of dumpling. “Yeah, of course I meant it.”

She fell back into silence, making a token effort to eat. Truthfully, she wasn’t hungry. Remembering the look on Vergil’s face as he snapped at her to stay out of an argument over the fate of humanity still made her stomach churn.

“What, you thought I’d bail? Like he did?”

“No.” She put her fork down, giving up the pretense. “You told me once I could count on you to stick with us until the end. I believed you, and I still do.”

“Then what’s with the thousand-yard stare?” He took his boots down off the table and let his chair fall back onto four legs with a thump, leaning on his elbows to look at her.

“It’s nothing.”

“Hey.” His frown was full of concern, but she couldn’t help seeing Vergil’s ‘what am I missing?’ frown in it. “You wanna keep it to yourself, that’s fine by me, but unlike my brother, I actually _care_ about the answer.”

“…there’s a part of me that wants to defend him, you know. Say he _does_ care, he’s just hyperfocused, that’s just his way.” She leaned back in her chair, tilting her head back to watch the ceiling fan spin. “But I guess no matter how well you think you know someone, you never know how they really feel.”

“Kat, you can trust me. I swear, I will not let him or anybody else squat on Mundus’ empty throne. I don’t care if I have to kill every damn demon on the planet.”

“I know.” She sighed and lifted her head up to meet his gaze again. “It’s just, this fight has been my whole life ever since I joined up with Vergil, and now…” She shrugged. “He’s gone, the Order is gone, all my friends are gone. This was supposed to be the endgame. He used to call it V-Day, like Victory Day. Only now, I think the ‘V’ stood for something else.”

Dante snorted, remembering the time he’d commented on Vergil’s pretentious-ass dashboard in his car and the response was “if I have to spend all my time hiding, I deserve this one indulgence.” Then he reached across the table and gently put a hand on her arm. “Not _all_ your friends are gone,” he said.

She smiled at him, wishing they’d found him much sooner. Maybe, if he and Vergil had spent more time together, his twin might have learned a thing or two about why humans might not appreciate overthrowing a demon king just to have another one immediately take his place. He certainly made it clear enough he didn’t consider _himself_ human. But Dante…she couldn’t think of anyone who seemed _more_ human to her, nephilim or no nephilim. “Thanks, Dante.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, enough about Vergil. Either we’ll get him to see reason before he makes his next move, or…”

“Or we won’t,” Dante finished grimly. “…I meant to thank you for what you did. Stopping me, I mean.”

She closed her eyes, letting the confusion and terror play out in her mind again for a moment, as Vergil gasped and choked on his own blood, eyes wide with shock and pain. As much as his words about how _useful_ she was and how _fragile_ humans were felt like getting punched in the gut, she didn’t want him dead—she wanted him _back._ She wanted the Vergil she knew, the endearingly overdramatic freedom fighter waxing poetic about waking up the ignorant populace and breaking their chains. If he really hadn’t felt anything for them—for her—could he have spoken so passionately about his life’s work to liberate them?

But even if it had all been a lie…he was her mentor, her friend. He’d helped her find purpose. She couldn’t just flip a switch and stop caring about him. And she knew Dante didn’t truly want to kill his own brother, any more than Vergil had, although looking back she couldn’t help the feeling that Vergil had been itching for that fight in some perverse way. Looking to prove himself against Dante, maybe, or just to earn the right to impose his will. But she spent years watching how tirelessly Vergil worked to find his beloved, long-lost brother, and she knew he wouldn’t have felt so utterly betrayed had he not loved Dante with all his heart.

“Of course,” she replied, leaning forward, her tone warming up a bit. “Don’t worry. I’m sure, if we just give him a little time, he’ll come around.” _Do I actually believe that? …I have to. _“In the meantime, what’s the plan?”

Dante looked like she’d just asked him to turn in homework he never finished. “The plan? For what?”

“For…anything.” She quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you swore to protect humanity with no idea how we were going to do it? Killing demons doesn’t pay the bills.”

“Bills.” She couldn’t entirely blame him for his vaguely lost expression; the last week or so had felt like a roller coaster, a perfect storm, capped by a sudden nightmare. “Yeah, uh…paying bills has never really been my thing. Especially since that hunter demon trashed my trailer.”

She folded her box of lo mein closed and pushed her chair back to stand, taking it with her. “Come on. I know a few places where Vergil hid backup resources. We can start there. And then _I’ll_ make a plan.”

He shoved the last two dumplings in his mouth as he got up, too, and she realized that nephilim metabolism must be a hell of a thing. Every time she’d eaten with Dante so far, he hadn’t touched a single vegetable or anything resembling one, but, well…she’d seen every inch of his perfect physique (and as first impressions went, she hadn’t been complaining). Vergil had tended not to eat much; she often found he’d forgotten to, absorbed in his work for hours at a time, and she’d bring him a sandwich just to make sure he didn’t pass out.

“I like this plan already,” Dante said, giving her a wink and then striding out the door. She found herself smiling again as she followed him outside.


End file.
